December is quiet in the garden, so it’s a good opportunity to attend to some of those “must-get-around-to-doing-sometime” jobs in the garden. A good purge and clear up is often in order, especially for older gardens. So hop to it! You’ll be greatful you did when the busy spring planting season comes around.

If you live in the tropics, now is the start of the cool dry season and you can grow a wider variety of crops, so you’ll be run off your feet, unlike your fellow gardeners in the colder northern areas.

What to plant
Plant rhubarb crowns and asparagus crowns now. They’re a great addition to any garden. Aspargus crowns last for 20 years and will reward you with thick tasty spears after the first 2 or three years. Initial preparation is essential for good crops. They need to be planted deep so try to get them about 30cm below the surface an incorporate loads of compost and manures. A yearly tidy up and top dressing with manure should be all they need afterwards.

You can keep planting your onion crop until late winter. Seeds sown now will be ready for harvesting from around August in some areas. In cold regions wait until after the worst of the winter weather has passed and plant “early” varieties in February or March instead.

Sow peas directly into the garden and add a mixture of varieties, from old fashion shelling varieties to sugar snap and snow peas for garden salads. Most will need a trellis or climbing support. Peas provide a great source of nitrogen for the soil so plant them together with lettuce and spinach. Winter lettuce varieties go well now but you can get an early start to spring plantings if you have a nice sunny windowsill or glasshouse to keep them going until ready to plant out in February. This is for the very keen and not so faint hearted (for fear of disappointment).

Add lime to your soil now if it is slightly acidic. Check the pH with a simple test kit bought at your local nursery. Peas, spinach and onions like a slightly alkaline soil (pH of 7.0 up to 8.0).

Consider sowing a “green manure” crop to help add nutrients and bulk to your soil. A green manure crop is a fast growing plant (usually 6-8 weeks) that is grown only to about knee height, then slashed and turned back into the soil. Some plants you can use are oats, pod vetch, lupins, mustard, red clover or even broad beans can also be used. A legume (or plant producing a bean-like pod) adds nitrogen to the soil through the roots and bulky mulching material is added through slashing the leaves before it has a chance to flower.

Roses
Now is rose time and with some extra time this month you can scour the catalogues and nurseries to purchase and plant any exciting new additions or even put in some of the old favourites. Remember roses will need to be pruned between mid December to mid January for best results. If you suspect any late frosts then leave it later rather than earlier. Prune them back to at least half their size, I go as far as 1/3. This encourages strong watershoots to appear in Spring giving plants a good strong framework and lots of healthy new canes to flower on.

Odd jobs
Mulching now may protect your plants from winter frosts by buffering temperature extremes. It also keeps moisture in and cuts down on the need to water your veggies too often. Make sure you lay it at least 5 to 7 cm thick otherwise you’ll be disappointed and weeds will start coming through. You can use any deciduous leaves that have fallen now as mulch. Or better still compost them first and use the compost in Spring. A word of warning when collecting leaves around the garden: dispose of any diseased leaves otherwise you could inadvertantly spread the disease rith throughout your garden with disastrous results next summer.

Deciduous leaves are hard to break down becuse they lack nitrogen. They will last a long time in the garden but can also prevent water passing through if they are laid too thickly. This makes leaves ideal to create paths between your garden beds. Usually paths between beds get a lot of wear and tear, so take the time this winter to define your garden beds and get rid of the half worn grass around them. Place a good layer of damp newspaper straight on top of your grass, define the garden edges with plastic, timber, terracotta or concrete edges and then lay the leaves directly on top of the newspaper. Make it a thick layer as it will settle down over the next few months.

Now is a good time to prune and tidy up all areas of your garden. Consider rigging up a composting area with 3 individual bays to hold the different stages of decomposing material. A triple system allows you to create a pile and then turn it into the next bay. This is a much easier way to turn your heap than trying to turn it onto itself, where you never seem to be able” to quite reach that bit in the bottom”. Keep turning it into the next bay and then you can leave the last bay as storage for your finished compost. This will continue to break down over time and can also become a great spot for earthworms. Remember to keep it covered so that rainfall doesn’t leach out any of the goodies before you need it.

Pest alert!
Winter is usually a pest free time in the garden, but don’t be fooled. Many will pupate over this time. Similarly, fungus is laying dormant just waiting for warmer conditions to spread it’s deadly force. So don’t become too complacent.

Fruit fly and codlin moth in apples are ones to watch out for. Remove any fallen fruit that may harbour their little eggs or maggots. Ensure that your orchard area is clean and you’ll avoid many problems. Now is a good time to consider some companion planting. Green Harvest have a wonderful “Good Bug Mix” of seeds to sow around your fruit trees and near the veggie patch. It’s a mixture of continual flowering herbs and plants that will attract the natural predators. Worth getting a pack or two.

Keep an eye out for caterpillars still, especially on vulnerable young cabbage family plants. Hand removal is often best. Use Dipel (Bt) if you have to.

Spray bordeaux mix for fungal problems like leaf curl, shot hole, rust, apple & pear scab and brown rot. This is done now to minimize damage to leaves.

Fruit trees
I always think of apple pie at this time of year. The old favourite recipe gets me special appreciation from the kids as well as hubby and it leaves those factory frozen ones for dead. So it’s worth putting in a Granny Smith just for the “love factor”. Many can be grown in pots now along with other dwarf stone fruit. Take a look at my article on creating an orchard in a pot at Veggie Lady articles. You’ll be surprised by what you can achieve in a relatively small space.

Pruning of your apple and pear trees takes place now. Shape them into an “open vase” by removing the inward growing shoots and leaving the more vertical branches alone. More fruiting occurs on this vertical growth and the shape will improve air circulation to prevent fungal problems. Try growing some espaliered on a north facing wall or in rows running north-south. Encourage one or two vertical “leaders” and then tie down the long soft branches to horizontal that come from the central leader. You’ll have to wait for spurs to grow from the horizontal branch before fruiting occurs.

Now is a good time to order and plant decidous fruit trees that arrive “bare rooted”. This means that they come without any soil attached and should be planted quickly to they don’t dry out. Give the longer roots a trim and tidy up so that you can spread the roots out as you plant it in the hole. Make sure the hole is big enough and incorporate some good compost when back-filling. I avoid putting manure in the planting hole since direct contact with the roots can burn them. Instead top dress with some manure, mulch heavily and give it a good water. By the time the tree breaks its dormancy and starts to grow, it’ll have a good supply of nutrients from the boken down manure above.

You can revive old fruit trees by cutting back one third of a tree’s branches every 3 years. By the end of the 3 years you should have cut back the entire tree. Don’t cut all the branches at once, it throws the tree into chaos and it sends out shoots everywhere (this is unfortunately what i did in time gone by - oh for the value of education!!). When new shoots appear, simply rub off the smaller ones and just keep best ones to form the new shape of the tree. The vigorous new growth will reward you with good fruit production.

Grape vines should be cut back very hard, which may seem savage but it is necessary. Leave only short 3-bud spurs at 20cm intervals along the main branch. This is important for preventing disease and getting good fruit.

Replace your strawberries about every 3 years. Many get diseased and affected by viruses. All new runners put out by infected plants will contain the problem. So it is best to replace with new, fresh and disease-free plants for better cropping.

Citrus are in full swing now so enjoy your sweeter navels as they come into season. My kids never ate oranges until I gave them a bowl of home grown, sweet and juicy organic navel oranges. They devoured them in one sitting, with juice streaming down the sides of their mouths!! Mandarins, limes and grapefruits are harvested now too, along with banana passionfruit, avocados, guavas and olives.

About the Author
Toni Salter is the ‘Veggie Lady’. Her website http://www.theveggielady.com
contains free advice on what to do in the garden, a planting guide, organic pest and disease control, featured plants and more each month.

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Most individuals could not defy a rose’s beauty and aroma. These flowers are considered a bit hard to grow, but anybody can begin rose gardening in the convenience of their own backyard.

To be sure that your most treasured roses are in the pink or even red of their health, just follow these tips on coping with every rose health perplexity:

1. Black Spots on Foliage

This disease is usually known as black spot. Black spots occur as circular with fringed edges on leaves. They make the leaves yellow. The answer is to get rid of the infected foliage and collect any fallen leaves around the rose. Artificial sprays may be used to stop or treat this type of rose disease.

2. Stunted or distorted young canes

Called powdery mildew, this is a fungal disease that blankets leaves, stems and buds with wind swept white powder. It causes the leaves to roll and become purple. Spray with an organic antifungal to treat this fungal disease that could destroy your rose garden.

3. Injured underside of leaves

A disease of roses called rust is characterized with orange-red blisters that turn black in the fall. In spring, it blisters new sprouts. This disease can even live through winter. What you can do is to pick up and toss away leaves that are infected in the fall. Organic anti-fungal spraying every 5 to 7 days may help.

4. Malformed or stunted leaves and flowers

What probably caused this is the occurrence of spider mites. They are small yellow, red or green spiders on the underside of the foliage. They suck juices from leaves. The application of a strong stream of water may help in treating this infestation.

5. Weak and blotched leaves with tiny white webs under them

This might be the work of aphids. They are tiny soft-bodied insects that are normally brown, green or red. sometimes clumped under leaves and flower buds, they suck plant juices from the delicate buds. a strong stream of water from a garden hose may help roses to endure these bugs.

6. Flowers that don’t open or are distorted when they open.

Thrips could be the cause behind this distortion and unopened flowers. It is defined with slender, brown-yellow bugs with bordered wings flourishing in flower buds. These bugs also suck juices from flower buds. You should cut and get rid of the infested flowers. Using neem oil spray may also treat this problem of your roses.

This important information concerning the diseases your roses are inclined to have will prove to be very helpful in making your rose gardening effort more rewarding.

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Slapping yourself silly trying to keep mosquitoes from biting you? Besides causing irritating itching bites, mosquitoes can also carry and transmit several diseases including the West Nile Virus. Although you cannot get rid of every mosquito, there are many ways to protect yourself and those around you.

The most important way to help fight mosquitoes is by breaking their breeding cycle. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water and those eggs hatch within 48 hours. Once hatched, the larvae feed on debris in the stagnant water until they move into the resting stage. In this stage, the larvae become pupae. The mosquito begins to develop and finally emerges as an adult mosquito. All this can happen in less than 5 days!

Be pro-active and check the area around your home for places where standing water may accumulate such as birdbaths, clogged gutters, buckets, kiddie pools, toys, even bottle caps - mosquitoes can breed in just a thimble full of water. Change water often in birdbaths. Empty kiddy pools and turn them upside down when not in use so they do not collect water. Keep your gutters clear of debris.

If you have done your best to help prevent breeding and are still being bothered by mosquitoes, there are many products on the market to repel or kill mosquitoes. The available products range from low-cost items such as lotions and sprays to higher priced solutions such as traps and misters. Along with a range in cost comes a range in effectiveness.

Citronella candles and torches are ineffective except in very small areas. One study showed that use of citronella candles resulted in people still being bitten by mosquitoes, but they had half as many bites as those who were not around the candles. Other products that do not perform well are ’sonic’ repelling systems. While these products are inexpensive, laboratory studies have shown that they do not work.

When looking for lotions or sprays, the Center for Disease Control recommends selecting those, which contain DEET, picaridin, or lemon eucalyptus. Products containing these ingredients can be obtained from most drug stores or home and garden stores. In addition to the products recommended by the CDC, there are also all natural products available. Lewey’s Eco-Blends offers an all-natural product that contains essential oils such as rosemary and thyme, which have shown repellent properties. Eco-blend comes in bottles for human use and spray bottles for equine use. Always be sure to read the label instructions and follow these instructions carefully.

If you would rather choose a more high-tech solution which helps reduce the population of mosquitoes, then you may want to investigate a propane based collection system or a mosquito misting system. The propane collection system works by converting the propane to carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide draws the mosquitoes to the unit in the same way your exhaled breath draws mosquitoes to you. In the collection system, the mosquito is ‘trapped’ in a bag when the pest enters the unit. These units need to have their collection bag cleaned frequently and you must change/refill the propane tank. Placement is critical. The units need to be placed downwind of your area and must be moved every time the wind direction shifts. These types of units require a fair amount of human intervention to operate at peak performance so the cost vs. the price should be weighed accordingly.

Another high-tech solution that is fairly new to the market, the mosquito mister system is permanently installed around your home. The system is comprised of a reservoir, pump, timer, and nozzles. Once the system is installed, it is set to mist a diluted Pyrethrum concentrate, at specified intervals - usually 4 times per day for about 30 seconds each period. The active ingredient in Pyrethrum is Pyrethrin, which is a natural pesticide made by crushing a special type of chrysanthemum flower into powder form. The powder is then added to an insecticide, commonly referred to as PBO, to increase the effectiveness of the solution. Misting Systems require only occasional maintenance and refilling, but are priced higher than other options. More advanced mister systems can be equipped with a remote control and variable timing functions in addition to automatic weather control options.

Now that you know how mosquitoes breed and how to protect against their bites, don’t let them run your life. Take action, tame your outdoors and enjoy your summer!

Bill Hackel is General Manager of http://www.MosquitoMister.com, the top supplier of mosquito misting systems for the do-it-yourself consumer.

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